you are right, not the easiest set to work on, did they ever make card extenders for those sets.
the 2SC41 is really more than warm to the touch and I don't even understand how it can take that heat. pretty robust!!!
I replaced all capacitors on the board and now I have some HV, and a white line on the top of the screen totally out of focus that varies in amplitude with the brightness control. the rectifiers are the 1DK1 (2 of them). as Mr Hoover said, they may be weak. Unfortunately, I don't have any and they seem to be hard to find. I will try disconnecting them and see if the 2SC41 gets colder. is there any solid state replacement for those HV rectifiers
thank you all